Earlier this summer, we were treated to quite the surprisewhen Nintendo unveiled Super Mario Bros. Wonderduring their major Nintendo Direct, being the first major 2D Mario platformer in over a decade (not countingSuper Mario Runor theMario Makergames). Even more surprising was how insane things seemed to get for a Mario game this time around, with levels that featured moving pipes, talking flowers, elephant powers, wild colors and more. The end result still had us captivated and wanting more. Luckily, a special Nintendo Direct yesterday (which you can view in full at the bottom) gave us a more in-depth showcase of Super Mario Bros. Wonder and its new features, and the whole shebang indeed looks chaotic and fun.
The direct began with a quick look at the story, now taking place in the neighboring Flower Kingdom, home to the caterpillar-like Poplins and Prince Florian, as well as the mysterious Wonder Flower. One day when Mario and the gang are all visiting, Bowser appears, touches the Wonder Flower, and thanks to its power, gets merged with Prince Florian’s castle, becoming this sentient, flying, heavy metal fortress that quickly heads out to jail the Poplins and take things over, and it’s up to our heroes to stop them.
The next bit of the Direct gave us a quick looks at the Flower Kingdom itself, consisting of seven different worlds. This includes the self-explanatory Pipe-Rock Plateau, the cloudy Fluff-Puff Peaks, the grotto-like Shining Falls, the Petal Isles with multiple islands and more yet to be unveiled, including levels with scorching deserts, uncanny forests, volcanoes with lava that you’ll have to cool down, and more, all looking beautiful. Traversing the levels is also done via an overworld map that you you can freely roam around, possibly leaving the door open for potential secrets to find there as well. Speaking of which, the levels are also populated by talking flowers that can “liven up” things, produce coins and provide hints, with a later clip seemingly showing one in a hidden area.
Moving on to our playable characters, we were able to see our whole main cast of Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, two different Toads (blue and yellow), and Toadette, which is a huge selection, though they will all play the same. Five other characters - four different-colored Yoshis and Nabbit - do play differently, however, essentially acting as the game’s Easy difficulty setting in that they can’t take any damage, though they will still die if they fall in bottomless pit. The Yoshis also get to gulp up items with their tongue and spit them out and flutter in the air for a bit, per tradition.
The main cast of playable characters in Super Mario Bros. Wonder is huge, and yet it may actually feel small compared to the rather massive cast of new enemies being introduced this time around, each with their own unique appearances and gimmicks. There are Hoppycats that jump when you jump, Melon Piranha Plants that spit out seeds, towering Mumsies that need to be unraveled carefully, Maw-Maws that produce massive mouths and chase after you if you get to close, and too many others to list here, including those that we only see glimpses of so far. The enemies alone show off a huge level of imagination, while still keeping a traditional Mario spirit.
Dealing with these enemies, be it head-on or maneuvering around them, will also require a new set of power-ups. And with the initial trailer before teasing an elephant transformation for Mario, the Direct this time around fully confirmed that the elephant transformation won’t be limited to a single level and will apparently be the central power-up, showing off every character’s elephant transformation, seemingly in response to the mounds of initial fan art for Elephant Mario (and by the time you’ll have read this, expect everyone else to have received loads of fan art as well). As an elephant, players can swing their trunk to attack enemies, break blocks by crashing into them, and suck up water with their trunk and spray it back out to get past various obstacles.
Other new power-ups include the Bubble power-up, which allows players to shoot out bubbles that can float over and subdue enemies (even travelling through walls), allowing you to easily subdue them. In addition, you can bounce off of the bubble you create in order to cross gaps and reach new areas. Then there’s a the Drill power-up, which appears on the character’s heads and can take out above enemies, break blocks below up, and allows players to dig into the ground and travel along it, akin to the Spin Drill from Super Mario Galaxy 2. The traditional Fire Flower is back as well, along with an item balloon that allows you to store and swap items, similar to Super Mario World. The only downside is that if you’re playing as the Yoshis or Nabbit, you don’t get any of the transformations.
So the enemies are chaotic, the power-ups are chaotic, but we haven’t even gotten to the most chaotic part of Super Mario Bros. Wonder yet, and the signature feature, that being the Wonder Flowers themselves. They appear in the levels, and as seen with Bowser in the intro, these thing can produce wild Wonder Effects when touched. They can cause pipes to spring to life and more around, summon stampeding animals or a batch of huge bubbles, leave characters falling through the sky or floating in space or even turn the game into a top-down title by flipping the perspective and having characters walk on the walls. Heck, they can even cause more transformation and turns our cast into Goombas, spike balls, balloons and more, because elephant transformations were clearly just the tip of the iceberg.
Courses will return to normal once you collect a Wonder Seed, though, and it was revealed that this is one of two ways to collect the seeds, the other via just completing the levels as normal. A certain amount of seeds are required to spend on unlocking certain levels, however, suggesting the Wonder Flowers might be trickier to get at then expected, the game allowing for multiple ways to advance, the possibility of bonus levels, or all/any of the above. So it looks like the levels are designed with several different approaches in mind, which is a great touch.
Believe it or not, though, the Wonder Effects and the new power-ups still aren’t the only ways you can further gameplay in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Unlockable Badges are here as well, gained via Badge Challenge Courses or Poplin Shops, and you can equip one per course, each which grants even more buffs and abilities. There are parachute caps that let you glide and float down, sensors to find hidden items and areas, dolphin kicks to provide boosts underwater, and more abilities that can give you an edge…or if you’re looking for a challenge instead, you can equip badges that turn you completely invisible, or that cause you to constantly run, along others. Truly, this is shaping up to be a Mario game all about experimentation and the unexpected.
The direct ended with a look at the multiplayer modes. There’s local co-op for up to four players, allowing for a whole team to tackle each level, even one consisting entirely of elephants (seriously, Nintendo had to be aware of how quickly that caught on), and if any players are playing as Yoshis, other players can even jump on and ride them. Yes, even other Yoshis or elephants. Alas, no direct online co-op appears to be here, instead utilizing “live player shadows” of other players that are on the course alongside the player and who can share items. Players can also plant standees in levels, which can revive other players before tricky areas. you’re able to also have competitive races with friends, which also give us a taste of our first boss, a seemingly psychedelic version of Bowser Jr.
The whole presentation closed with one last announcement: the reveal of a special Mario Red Edition of the Switch OLED, available on October 6, ahead of the October 20 release date. But that seems to just be the cherry on top of what looks to potentially be one of the best Mario platformers yet, one swimming in creativity, from big things like the warped Wonder Flower courses to little things like all of the new enemy designs. The level designs look to be some of the best the series has had, and the game overall looks like the breath of fresh air that the franchise has needed. We’ll see if that’s the case when Super Mario Bros. Wonder arrives this October, and we eagerly anticipate what else it can bring.
